U.S. Commercial Service - American Embassy, Beijing
Vol. 2 No. 133
The China Commercial Brief is a biweekly publication including summaries about developments in China's various commercial sectors, tips on doing business in China, and U.S. Embassy news. This publication is free of charge: please forward it to your colleagues and friends who are interested in China.
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Editor: David Snodgrass
Contributing Specialists: CS Shenyang, Shen Yan, Peng Aiqun, Merry Cao, Qiu Jing, Grace Cao
News Briefs
In the interests of providing news from all over China, our four China branch offices - Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang - submit summaries of commercial articles from their local press to the CCB on a rotating schedule, in addition to the five article summaries provided by CS Beijing.
1. Shenyang: An Ecological City in 2010
2. Law Firms in Beijing No Longer Required to be Located in Office Buildings
3. Central Bank Abolished Application Procedures for Gold Product Licenses
4. China's First ERP Norm to be Launched Soon
5. CCTV’s New Channel Provides More Ad Opportunities
6. Beijing to Invest RMB 12 Billion into Sewage Water Treatment
1. Shenyang: An Ecological City in 2010
(Source: Shenyang Evening Paper, 04/08/2003 - Translated by CS Shenyang)
At present, Shenyang only has two municipal sewage treatment facilities with a combined treatment capacity of 500,000 tons/day. By 2010, Shenyang will construct 15 sewage treatment facilities to establish an integrated sewage treatment system in the east, west, south and north through three phases. The system will enhance the treatment capacity to1.85 million tons/day, raise the treatment rate to over 90% and enable the maximum treatment and recycle of municipal sewage. The intensive construction plans create business opportunities for U.S. pollution control equipment manufacturers and suppliers.
Phase I (Present - 2004)
Shenyang is focusing on treating the pollution of the Hunhe River in urban areas. In addition to keeping the present sewage treatment facility operating normally, Shenyang will continue construction of Lingkong Sewage Treatment Facility (200,000 tons/day), and begin to construct the Mantanghe Environmental Municipal Sewage Treatment Facility (20,000 tons/day), Huishan Mingqu Environmental Sewage Treatment Facility (30,000 tons/day), Daoyi Economic Development Zone (30,000 tons/day), and the 724 Sewage Treatment Facility (50,000 tons/day). Meanwhile, Shenyang will construct 200 gray water-recycling projects. It plans to build 18 sewage treatment facilities with a total treatment capacity of 880,000 tons/day, raise the treatment rate to over 60% and recycle 100,000 tons of gray water daily by 2004.
Phase II (2005-2007)
Shenyang will intensify treatment of pollution in the Hunhe River basin. It will construct seven treatment facilities, increase to a treatment capacity of 660,000 tons/day, raise the treatment rate to over 80% and build 200 gray water recycle projects.
Phase III (2008-2010)
Shenyang will intensify treatment of pollution in Liaohe River Basin. It will construct three treatment facilities, increase a treatment capacity of 300,000 tons/day, raise the treatment rate to over 90% and establish 300 gray-water recycle projects.
2. Law Firms in Beijing No Longer Required to be Located in Office Buildings
(Source: Beijing Business Today, 02/11/2003 - Translated by Shen Yan)
Beijing's Municipal Judicial Bureau revealed on February 10th that it had reformed the registration procedures for newly established law firms in Beijing, abolishing the former regulation that law offices should be located in office buildings or similar places with actual office space no less than 80 square meters.
Zhang Qing, president of the Beijing Lawyers Association, introduced that Beijing now has 550 registered law offices with registered lawyers totaling 5834 and acting lawyers totaling 1,357. The number of lawyers in Beijing accounts for 6% of the nation’s total.
The Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau has amended the original regulations on establishing law offices and started to carry out new procedures with regard to the establishment, alteration and cancellation of partnership law offices according to regulations made by the Ministry of Justice since February 1, 2003.
These measures stipulate that the office environment of law offices should match the nature of its business. However the former regulation that law offices must be located in office buildings has been abolished.
3. Central Bank Abolishes Application Procedures for Gold Product Licenses
(Source: Financial News, 04/17/2003 - Translated by Peng Aiqun)
The People’s Bank of China recently announced a new policy to abolish application procedures for gold production, processing and sales.
The new policy will impact China’s gold market in several areas. Firstly, any foreign company interested in domestic gold jewelry production, under the condition that the company purchased local raw material of gold in China, can freely engage in investment, processing, wholesale and retailing in China. This policy hopes to encourage more foreign companies to set up joint ventures in China; Secondly, the policy will ease the shortage of gold supply for jewelry in China; Thirdly, the new policy will help China’s gold product market integrate with the world market.
China has become the world’s third-largest gold consumer. China’s gold demand reached 202.3 tons last year, after India and the United States. With the abolition of policy barriers, China’s gold market will become more open and the demand for gold will increase.
The import and export of gold (including raw material and gold jewelry) is still controlled by the People’s Bank of China.
4. China's First ERP Norm to be Launched Soon
(Sources: CS Beijing, Merry Cao - 04/22/03)
Mr.Xu Jiangang, Director of the Management Software Association, a subsidiary organization of the China Software Industry Association, in a telephone conference, told the U.S. Commercial Service office in Beijing that China has developed its first Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) norm. The norm has worked out by the China's Productivity Promotion Center Association under assignment from the Ministry of Information Industry. This norm will take effect soon.
The ERP norm, which has been under consideration since May 2001, was drafted after investigation of more than 800 enterprises, and passed its first round of testing by related government departments. The norm aims to clarify the ERP concept and provides a quantitative evaluation system for local end-users during their process of selecting their own ERP systems.
Recently, China's ERP Industry Alliance was established, which is expected to enhance domestic ERP software providers' interaction and collaboration and to set up a constant ERP business model and further explore ERP software standardization.
5. CCTV’s New Channel Provides More Ad Opportunities
(Source: CCTV website - Translated by Qiu Jing)
China’s Central TV Station (CCTV) will launch a 24-hour news channel on May 1 this year. This will provide opportunities for companies and advertisement agencies to buy commercial slots.
China’s total advertisement revenue reached $10.9 billion by the end of 2002. China’s media Ad market reached the following levels:
China’s TV ad revenue reached $2.8 billion, a 28.8 percent increase over last year, accounting for 25.58 percent of the total ad revenue;
Newspaper ad revenue reached $2.3 billion, a 19.52 percent increase over last year, accounting for 20.87 percent of the total ad revenue;
Radio ad revenue reached $265 million, a 19.8 percent increase over last year, accounting for 2.42 percent of the total ad revenue;
Magazine ad revenue reached $184 million, a 28.25 percent increase over last year, accounting for 1.68 percent of the total ad revenue.
Foodstuff, beverages, pharmaceuticals, post and communication, computer and accessories, home electrical appliance, toiletries, retail and services, cleaners and real estate are among the industries that use advertisement the most in China.
6. Beijing to Invest RMB 12 Billion into Sewage Water Treatment
(Source: Beijing Evening News, 04/20/2003 - Translated by Grace Cao)
In the next few years, Beijing is planning to invest RMB 12 billion ($1.44 billion) into sewage water treatment as part of the official Olympic Action Plan. Beijing plans to use centralized management while encouraging investment from multiple sources - including a gradual increase in Beijing's sewage water treatment fees.
According to Beijing planning, by 2008 nine sewage water treatment plants and eight recycling water treatment facilities will be under construction. Beijing Authorities will make overall plans to set up sewage water treatment plants and a city drainage system network. Presently, around 300 kilometers of sewage water pipelines are in operation in Beijing. In the few years, Beijing Authorities will construct more pipelines to lead municipal sewage water to the drainage system, with a final target of eliminating the discharge of sewage water completely.
In addition, sewage water treatment taxes will be raised in Beijing. By 2008, the fifteen sewage water treatment plants scheduled will be completely put into operation, the wastewater pipeline network will extend to 4000 kilometers and the annual operation and maintenance expenditures on treatment plants and pipeline network will reach $12 million.
Embassy News
Videoconferencing: Solution to Postponed China Travel - We are actively encouraging companies that are hesitant or have cancelled business trips to use video teleconference as a means of meeting with Chinese clients. This can be done with their own equipment or through any of our 100+ domestic offices. More information is available at: http://www.buyusa.gov/china/en/aimr.html.
Consulate News: Shenyang
In keeping with our goal of making the CCB a more integrated publication, our four China branch offices - Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang - submit consulate news to the CCB on a rotating schedule. This week, we are pleased to feature a contribution from CS Shenyang:
In an effort to pursue the interest of the business community in improving the effectiveness of China’s intellectual property law enforcement process, the U.S. Consulate General in Shenyang is planning several outreach events, which will occur in early to mid-May. The Consul General will meet with the Liaoning WTO TRIPS Leading Group; USCS will convene a meeting of local lawyers and judges active in the intellectual property area, and a digital videoconference on intellectual property law enforcement will be broadcast.
DISCLAIMER: CS China does not guarantee the veracity of the original sources of our news summaries. While we do our best to report accurate and timely articles and news sources, you should always check the source for further information.
The China Commercial Brief is a free newsletter published by the U.S. Embassy- Beijing.
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INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT, U.S. COMMERCIAL SERVICE AND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES.